Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne defended “historical” housing spending in Budget 2025 on his way out of the cabinet meeting Tuesday. He told reporters he respects the PBO’s work but added that “sometimes you need a bit of nuance.”
Champagne said that future budgets will update spending priorities and no one should “prejudge” any of those commitments.
“You don’t take decisions for ‘29 in ‘25,” he said.
“We’re going to do the work now and we’ll take the decisions that are going to be needed as we go forward.”
NDP housing critic Jenny Kwan accused the government of inflating homebuilding expectations through its budget last month.
“The commitment on this new generational investment that the government’s talking about, it is barely a drop in the bucket to address the housing crisis,” Kwan said before question period.
